Christiana (_____) Hodgkinson (c. 1788–1865) was my fourth great-grandmother, married to Robert Hodgkinson of Grantham Township on Canada’s Niagara Peninsula.
For decades, her maiden name and parentage have eluded me—and many other Hodgkinson researchers.
When I first discovered my descent from Robert and Christiana after posting on an old RootsWeb message board for Lincoln County, Ontario, back in 2006, another seasoned researcher cautioned me:
“People have been looking for Christiana’s maiden name for over 20 years. So far, no luck. There was speculation that she may have been a Corson as one of her daughters was named Catherine ‘Cor.,’ but all of that is pure speculation. No proof whatsoever.”¹
As I dug deeper, I found another popular theory suggesting Christiana might have been a Larraway. The Larraway family was certainly connected to the Hodgkinsons through the marriage of Robert and Christiana’s daughter, Eleanor Jane, to James Larraway in 1839.² Given the endogamy among settlers in Upper Canada, it wouldn’t have been surprising to find additional ties between the two families.
A distant cousin even mentioned a family Bible record in which Christiana’s maiden name was penciled in as Larraway, then crossed out, as if the writer weren’t certain.³ The theory was appealing: there were plenty of Loyalist Larraways in the Niagara Peninsula, including one Jonas Larraway, himself a Loyalist like Robert Hodgkinson’s father. And in 1829, Robert Hodgkinson placed a newspaper ad for a lost English watch inscribed with the initials “J.L.”⁴ Could that watch have belonged to his father-in-law, Jonas Larraway?
It was just the kind of tantalizing clue that keeps a genealogist awake at night. But despite its appeal, I was never able to find convincing evidence for this theory in the historical record. So, what was the truth of Christiana’s origins?
Christiana in the Records
Because of record loss, Christiana appears in only one census—the 1861 enumeration—which listed her as age 61 and born in Upper Canada.⁵ However, her daughter Elizabeth (Hodgkinson) Walsh stated in the 1900 U.S. census that her mother was born in New York.⁶
Christiana’s death notice, published in the St. Catharines Constitutional on 14 September 1865, reported that she was 77 years old at death, suggesting a birth circa 1788.⁷ Her grave marker at Victoria Lawn Cemetery records her death on 5 September 1864, “Aged 76 Yrs. & 8 M.,” implying a birth in December 1788 or January 1789.⁸ No surviving church records identify her parents or birthplace.
A Breakthrough with Full-Text Search
That was where my research stood—until recently, when I was playing with FamilySearch’s Full-Text Search feature. This AI-driven tool, introduced at RootsTech 2024, has revolutionized genealogical discovery by revealing text buried deep within unindexed images. I’d used it before to glean small clues, but this time, it changed everything.
A simple search for “Christiana Hodgkinson” in Canada, 1790–1866, surfaced a Revolutionary War pension file.⁹
My jaw hit the floor. This was the breakthrough I’d been looking for.
Christiana Hodgkinson was née Griffiths, or Griffis.
Somehow, amid the Loyalist settlement of Grantham, there was a family—my family!—who applied to the U.S. government for a pension they believed was owed to their patriarch for his Revolutionary War service.
The Pension File That Changed Everything
The 48-page file was pure genealogical gold. It revealed that Christiana was the daughter of James and Catherine (Froelich) Griffiths or Griffis and that she had at least six siblings, including Sarah Griffis, who married Francis Hodgkinson—the brother of Christiana’s husband, Robert.¹⁰
Suddenly, the puzzle pieces snapped together: two Hodgkinson brothers had married two Griffis sisters.
James Griffiths was the son of Peter from “Albanii” (Albany), and Catherine was the daughter of Barend Froelich. They were married 13 June 1783 at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Athens, Greene County, New York. It was stated that that “the family originally came from Wales and spelt their name Griffiths until after the Revolution, it was written Griffis, as it was shorter and more like the pronunciation.”
James Griffiths fought on the American side—unlike most of my ancestors of that era, who were Loyalists. A certificate dated 1852 from Archibald Campbell, Deputy Secretary of State in Albany, confirmed that James enlisted 1 March 1777 in Capt. Jacob Wright’s company, Second New York Regiment, commanded by Col. Philip Van Cortlandt. He served three years and was discharged 2 February 1780.
James and Catherine Griffiths migrated to Canada around 1800, settling in Grantham, where Catherine died 17 November 1835 and James died 18 December 1837. They were buried together in the Episcopal Burying Ground at Ten Mile Creek.
A Bureaucratic Saga
All this information appeared within affidavits filed in 1852 by their son Peter Griffis, who believed he and his siblings were entitled to their father’s pension as a Revolutionary War veteran. Among those documents was his sworn declaration describing his father’s service (Figure 1), and identifying his father’s heirs as himself, Mary Larraway, Sarah Hodgkinson, Christiana Hodgkinson, Lydia Courson, and Hannah Oustroudt.
Figure 1. Detail from Peter Griffis’s Revolutionary War pension affidavit. Underlined text highlights his father’s service history, stating, “…his Father was in the service of the United States the greater part of the Revolution, that he resided on the Wall Kill in Orange or Sullivan County during the Revolution and in Green County afterwards until the year 1800 when he removed to the Province of Upper Canada. The Deponent cannot state the dates or periods of the service rendered by his Father but remembers that he stated, that he served three years in a New York Regiment under Capt. Wright, that he enlisted for that period in the year 1776 or 1777, and thinks Colonel Van Courtlandt was the Colonel of the Regiment to which Capt. Wright’s Company belonged…”
Despite the certificate from the Deputy Secretary of State dated 29 September 1852 (Figure 2), the Pension Office equivocated, writing in March 1853 that the claim might be approved if James Griffiths’s identity could be firmly established:
“If his name was formerly Griffith, it can be proved by the production of the Family Record, or a certified Copy.… If the claim is a meritorious one, it is very remarkable that application has been deferred until this late day.”
Figure 2. Certificate by Archibald Campbell, Deputy Secretary of State, Albany, confirming James Griffiths’s Revolutionary War service under Capt. Wright and Col. Van Cortlandt.
Christiana Hodgkinson herself replied in an affidavit—signed in her own hand—attesting to her name, age, parents, and the date of her parents’ marriage, which was recorded in their family Bible brought to Canada around 1800 (Figure 3). Lawrence Corson also testified that he had examined that Bible and believed it to be an original record of James and Catherine’s marriage.
Figure 3. Christiana Hodgkinson’s affidavit featuring her signature at bottom right.
From 1853 to 1859, the family persisted. Their attorney defended the claim, explaining the name change from Griffith to Griffis and the delay caused by their Canadian residence. The pastor of Zion Lutheran Church sent a certified copy of the 1783 marriage record. In September 1859, Sarah Hodgkinson wrote again, still believing children could inherit pensions, and demanded payment for seven years of service at the rate of $8 per month with 6% interest over 77 years, which she calculated to amount to $3,776.46. Her angry letter went so far as to threaten legal action if denied.
You have to love her chutzpah.
Ultimately, the claim was rejected. Some confusion might have been avoided if the Pension Office had clearly stated back in 1852 that Revolutionary War pensions extended only to veterans and widows—not to their heirs. However, they didn’t state that until 1859, in their response to Sarah Hodgkinson. Meanwhile their earlier replies, suggesting that there was insufficient evidence linking James Griffiths the soldier with James Griffis of Grantham, seem puzzling. What are the odds that Peter Griffis could accurately describe the enlistment details of an unrelated James Griffiths?
Connecting the Dots
With the identification of James and Catherine (Froelich) Griffiths as Christiana’s parents, and Lydia (Coursin/Corson) as her sister, two loose ends finally made sense.
The death certificate for James George Welch (Walsh), son of Robert and Elizabeth (Hodgkinson) Walsh, incorrectly reported his mother’s maiden name as Griffith instead of Hodgkinson¹¹ The informant, his wife Jane (Lawder) Walsh, obviously confused her mother-in-law’s maiden name with that of Elizabeth’s mother.
Another clue appears in St. Mark’s Anglican Church Baptisms, Niagara-on-the-Lake, 1792–1856: on 3 January 1816, Barnabas Corson, son of Lawrence and Lydia, was baptized with sponsors Jno. (John) Hodgkinson and Jas. (James) and Catherine Griffiths.¹² It’s clear now that Barnabas’s mother, Lydia (Griffiths) Corson, chose her own parents, and her brother-in-law’s father, as godparents for her son.
Conclusions
The Pension Office’s handling of this case reveals both bureaucratic confusion and subtle bias. Their skepticism may have stemmed from the fact that the claim originated within a known Loyalist settlement in Upper Canada. Indeed, there exists a land petition from a Peter Griffis citing Loyalist service during the Revolution.¹³ That petitioner stated he came to Canada circa 1800, coinciding with Christiana’s family’s arrival. But the Peter Griffis who was Christiana’s brother was born about 1793—too young to have served—so the Loyalist claimant was likely a paternal uncle.
The Griffis family thus embodied the divided loyalties of that era: relatives on both sides of the Revolutionary War. James Griffis was certified to have served honorably on the American side, even if later bureaucrats buried that certification as the final page beneath forty-seven pages of correspondence in his file.
It’s also striking that the old theories weren’t entirely wrong. Christiana’s sisters really did marry into the Corson and Larraway families that researchers long suspected.
Looking back 173 years later, I’m oddly grateful that the Pension Office never clarified in 1852 that a pension claim died with the veteran and his widow. Had they done so, my fourth great-grandmother might never have submitted her affidavit—and her signature, a tangible link to her life, might never have been preserved.
Notes
Name withheld for privacy, author’s research files.
Library and Archives Canada, List of Marriage Licences Issued in Upper Canada (RG 5 B9), LAROWAY, James, and HODGKISON, Eliza [sic] Jane, 24 July 1839.
Name withheld for privacy, author’s research files.
The Farmers’ Journal and Welland Canal Intelligencer (St. Catharines, Ontario), 8 Apr 1829, p. 3, “Watch Lost.”
1861 Census of Canada, Canada West, Lincoln District 22, Grantham Sub-District 6, p. 4, Robert Hodgkinson household; LAC RG31, Microfilm C-1048–1049.
1900 U.S. Census, Erie Co., N.Y., Buffalo Ward 24, ED 212, Sheet 3A, Charles DeVere household; NARA T623, roll 1032.
St. Catharines Constitutional (14 Sept 1865), p. 3, death notice for Christina Hodgkinson.
Victoria Lawn Cemetery (St. Catharines, Ontario), monument inscription for Christiana Hodgkinson.
U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, Revolutionary War Pension File R4321, James Griffis or Griffiths; NARA M804, Roll 1133; digital image, FamilySearch.
Find a Grave memorial #99489809 for Sarah Hidgkinson (1787–1865), North Embro Cemetery, Oxford Co., Ont.; Niagara Peninsula Branch OGS, St. Mark’s Anglican Church Baptisms, Niagara-on-the-Lake, 1792–1856, p. 22.
Ontario Death Certificate 1924 no. 032688, George James Welch, 18 June 1924; FamilySearch database, “Canada, Ontario Deaths, 1869–1937.”
St. Mark’s Anglican Church Baptisms, Niagara-on-the-Lake, 1792–1856, p. 23, entry for 3 Jan 1816, Barnabas Corson.
Upper Canada Land Petitions 1819, Vol. 206, Bundle G12, no. 44, Peter Griffis of Louth; LAC RG1 L3, Microfilm C-2030.
Józef Bogacki (c. 1826–1919) and Apolonia (Prusiecka) Bogacka (c. 1822–1906) were some of my husband’s great-great-great-grandparents. They were Polish immigrants from the Prussian partition of Poland who settled in Buffalo, New York, along with some of their children, who were known to include Teka (Bogacka) Wolińska (1860–1906), and Antoni Bogacki (c. 1858–1915).
Although Tekla (Bogacka) Wolińska and her husband, Józef, are buried in a different location in the cemetery, there is a large monument for other members of the Bogacki family in St. Stanislaus Cemetery in Cheektowaga, New York (Figures 1 and 2).
Figure 1: Front of the Bogacki monument in St. Stanislaus Cemetery, Cheektowaga, New York. Photo taken by the author, July 2014.
Figure 2: Back of the Bogacki monument in St. Stanislaus Cemetery, Cheektowaga, New York. Photo taken by the author, July 2014.
Of course, having so many names on a monument just begs their placement into a family tree.
Judging from the dates on the marker alone, Józef Bogacki and Apolonia Bogacka, born in 1826 and 1825, respectively, are the earliest generation shown. Maryanna Bogacka (b. 1867), Antoni Bogacki (b. 1858), Jadwiga Bogacka (b. 1866), and Elżbieta Siekierecka (b. 1873) comprise the next generation of the family, but we need additional evidence to establish their relationships.
Indexed records from the PGSNYS databases provide a quick-and-dirty clarification (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Search results from the PGSNYS databases for surname “Bogack” and given name “Ant” which reveal two marriage records. Click image to enlarge.
These results include two marriage records (marked in red) from St. Stanislaus for Antoni Bogacki, one to Jadwiga Tądrowska in 1892and the other to Marya Tondrowska in 1901.[1] The “Page” column provides the specific volume, page, and record number for locating the results in the the original church books. Since marriage records from St. Stanislaus are imaged at FamilySearch from 1874–1917, both of these records are readily available.
The marriage records identify Antoni’s parents are Josef Bogacki and Apollonia Prusiecka. Although the maiden names of Antoni’s brides are spelled somewhat differently, Tądrowska and Tondrowska are phonetically similar in Polish. The fact that his wives had the same maiden name suggests that they might have been sisters. A second search in the database collection for “Jadwiga Tadrowska” and “Marya Tondrowska,” confirms this suspicion; both were daughters of Wawrzyn (Lawrence) Tądrowski/Tondrowski and Salomea Luberska.
The search shown in Figure 3 for Antoni Bogacki also confirms that he died in 1915 at the age of 57, which suggests a birth in 1858, and these dates match those on the grave marker (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Search results from the PGSNYS database collection for surname “Bogack” and given name “Ant” which reveal his death record. Click image to enlarge.
Antoni Bogacki was buried from Transfiguration parish in Buffalo, and those images, too, are online at FamilySearch.[2] Church records from ethnic Polish parishes like St. Stanislaus and Transfiguration can be a wonderful source for evidence of place of origin, and in this regard, Antoni’s death record and marriage records do not disappoint. His death record reveals that he was born in “Chelmno, Pruss. Zach.,” while both the marriage records state “Chełmno, Boruss.” Borussia is the Latin name for Prussia, and Prusy Zachodnie is the Polish name for West Prussia, so all the documents point to the same location, the town of Chełmno which is presently located in the Kujawsko-Pomorskie province of Poland.
So far we’ve identified the parents, Józef and Apollonia, and three of the four individuals in the Bogacki “children” generation, Antoni and his wives, Jadwiga and Maria (Tądrowska) Bogacki. Elżbieta Siekierecka remains to be placed on the tree, but hers is an interested story, so we’ll come back to her.
Moving on now to the “grandchildren” generation, based on birth years recorded on the monument, we have Jan Bogacki (born 1886), Kazimiera Bogacka (born 1889), Wiktoria Bogacka (born 1887), Władysław Bogacki (born 1885), Marcyanna J. Kurpisz (born 1899) and a priest, Ks. Prałat [ksiądz prałat] Maksymilian T. Bogacki, whose dates of birth and death are specified as Paź. 6 [Październik, October]1895 and Gr. 17 [Grudzień, December] 1982. A search for Jan Bogacki in the PGSNYS databases produces a number of useful records, including his death notice, which was published in the Polish newspaper, Dziennik dla Wszystkich, on 1 May 1954, as well as the record of his marriage at St. John Kanty on 3 June 1908 to Kazimiera Pawlicka.[3] Another piece falls into place; Kazimiera is certainly the Kazimiera Bogacka who was buried in the Bogacki family plot. The databases additionally contain Jan’s baptismal record from St. Stanislaus parish in 1886.[4] The marriage record and the baptismal record both identify Jan’s parents as Antoni Bogacki and Anna Burczykowska and the baptismal record reiterates Antoni’s place of birth as Chełmno, Boruss[ia].
So, Anna Burczykowska was Antoni’s first wife, although she was not buried in the same plot with Antoni and his subsequent wives. A search for her grave at Find-a-Grave is negative, but PGSNYS member, Barbara Ruppert, has Anna Bogacka’s grave indexed at her Grave Finder at St. Stan’s website, which should always be checked when searching for final resting places of Buffalo’s Polonia.[5] Anna’s death record, indexed in the PGSNYS database, reveals that she died 5 December 1891 and was buried 7 December 1891, consistent with the burial date indexed at the Grave Finder website.[6] The death record also states that Anna was born in Chełmno, adding to the growing body of evidence for the Bogacki family’s origins.
Getting back now to the folks whose names were recorded on that monument, we’ve pretty well confirmed the relationship between Kazimiera and Jan Bogacki—she was his wife. However, it would be nice to find some additional evidence of her birth and death dates. Her newspaper death notice is useful here (Figure 5).[7] Not only does it confirm her date of death (which agrees with the date on the grave marker), it also confirms her husband’s name and the names of her children. But wait, there’s more: two of those names match with as-yet-unidentified names on the grave marker, Henryk/Henry and Eugenia Bogacki.
Figure 5: Death notice from The Buffalo News (Buffalo, New York) for Kazimiera (Pawlicka) Bogacka.
A match for Kazimiera Bogacka in the Social Security Death Index (SSDI) with a date of death of July 1976, reports her date of birth as 23 October 1887.[8] This is off a bit from the date reported on her grave marker, 1889, but that kind of discrepancy is not unusual for individuals born in this era. Since Kazimiera’s marriage record indicated that she was born in Poland, we would need to locate her birth record in order to know definitively which birth date is correct, but that’s another question for another day.
Although the English equivalent of the name Kazimiera is Casimira, fellow Bogacki researchers should be aware that Kazimiera also used the name Catherine or Katherine.[9] It was not unusual for early 20th century Polish Americans to adopt an “American” name that differed from the etymological equivalent of that person’s Polish given name. If you compare Kazimiera/Catherine’s death notice shown in Figure 5 with the death notice of her husband, John Bogacki, published in The Buffalo News on 1 May 1954, you see that the names of the children are the same, although the couple’s oldest son, Charles, was recorded as “Carol” in his father’s death notice.[10] This, again, is due to a variant translation of the Polish name Karol (Charles).[11] If any doubt remains about these conclusions, consider John Bogacki’s obituary, published in the Cheektowaga Times, which identifies his wife as Kazimiera (née Pawlicki) rather than Katherine, and their oldest son as Charles J. Bogacki, rather than Carol.[12]
Since this research into Jan and Kazimiera Bogacki provided some preliminary information on Henry and Eugenia Bogacki, we may as well look them up in the SSDI and locate their newspaper death notices to confirm birth and death dates. Henry’s death notice reports his date of death as 4 March 1987, and the SSDI provides his date of birth, 8 November 1912.[13] Henry’s death notice also gives us Eugenia’s maiden name, Michalski, which is confirmed in Eugenia’s obituary, as well as in the Social Security Applications and Claims Index, which goes beyond the SSDI to provide her parents’ names, John Michalski and Victoria Ledzynska, in addition to her dates of birth (27 June 1917) and death (8 March 1999).[14] Since Henry and Eugenia lived so recently, it’s unsurprising that their birth and death dates agree perfectly with those reported on the Bogacki family monument.
After this brief foray into the “great-grandchildren” generation, let’s move back now to placing the remaining “grandchildren” on the tree, Wiktoria Bogacka (born 1887), Władysław Bogacki (born 1885), Marcyanna J. Kurpisz (born 1899) and Rev. Maksymilian T. Bogacki (born 1895). Another search in the PGSNYS databases for surname “Bogack” with father’s name “Ant” and mother’s name “Anna” produces a slew of baptism, marriage, and death records (Figure 6) for children of Antoni Bogacki and Anna Burczykowska, as well as a couple death records for children of Antoni Bogacki and Marianna Tądrowska (Figure 6).
Figure 6: Search results from the PGSNYS databases for surname “Bogack” with father’s name “Ant” and mother’s name “Anna.” Click image to enlarge.
Underlined results include a baptismal record for Vladislaus Antonius Bogacki, who was born 17 January 1885 and baptized at St. Stanislaus, as well as the record of his marriage to Victoria Niwczyk [sic] at Corpus Christi parish. The baptismal record is available online at FamilySearch, and a digital image of the marriage record is available upon request from PGSNYS.[15] They look like a promising match for the Władysław and Wiktoria on the Bogacki monument. We can repeat our strategy of confirming death dates using the SSDI and newspaper death notices, assuming that Władysław probably adopted the name Walter in later years. Lo, and behold, a search for Walter Bogacki at Newspapers produces his death notice, which confirms his date of death and wife’s name, and the SSDI provides additional confirmation of birth and death dates.[16]
As it turns out, there’s no good match for Wiktoria (Niewczyk) Bogacki in the SSDI, which is not unusual for women in this era. Since her marriage record indicated that she was born in Posen, I’ll bet I can find her birth record in BaSIA, which is a vital records database which focuses on the Wielkopolskie province of Poland, where Poznań is located. In the interest of staying focused, however, I’ll defer that question for another day and get back to the problem of untangling the relationships between members of the Bogacki family identified on their grave monument.
There’s a good match for Marcyanna J. Kurpisz in the PGSNYS databases as Marcyanna Bogacka, daughter of Antoni Bogacki and his second wife, Jadwiga Tądrowska. The PGSNYS index points us to her baptismal record from St. Stanislaus, which confirms her date of birth as 10 January 1899.[17] Her death notice confirms that she died 4 May 1971, and identifies her as Marion H. Kurpisz, rather than Marcyanna J.[18] The different middle initials are easily accounted for if we suppose that her middle name might have been Jadwiga, after her mother; the English version of Jadwiga is Hedwig. The name Marcyanna is a variant spelling of Marcjanna or Marciana, which is the female form of Marcjan, which in turn derives from the Latin name Martianus/Martiana.[19] Etymologically, the name is not equivalent to Marianna (Polish), Marian, or Marion (English); “Martina” would have been closer to the original. However, as we saw previously with Kazimiera/Catherine Bogacka, there were no rules which required Polish Americans to adopt names that were etymologically equivalent to their original names. In fact, until the advent of Social Security, no one was even keeping track, so you might see early 20th century Polish Americans trying out a few different names until they settled upon one they liked.
Marion Kurpisz’s death notice also informs us that her husband was Edward J. Kurpisz, who is undoubtedly the Edward Kurpisz on the grave marker. Edward’s death notice provides his date of death, 9 March 1984, but doesn’t tell us how old he was when he died.[20] The record of his marriage to Marion saves the day, however, providing his precise date of birth, 14 March 1899, and parents’ names, Konstanty Kurpisz and Teodora Wdowicka.[21]
A number of records discovered thus far have mentioned the Right Reverend Monsignor Maksymilian T. Bogacki. He was the priest who performed the marriage for his sister, Marion, and he was also one of the officiants at her funeral Mass. Msgr. Bogacki was born on 6 October 1895 to Antoni Bogacki and his second wife, the former Jadwiga Tądrowska. He was baptized at St. Stanislaus, and a very nice obituary was published in The Buffalo News on 19 December 1982 (Figure 7).[22]
Figure 7: Obituary from The Buffalo News for Msgr. Maximilian T. Bogacki. Click image to enlarge.
At this point, we’ve established relationships between everyone on the Bogacki family monument except for Adam Bogacki and Elżbieta Siekierecka. Elżbieta will be the subject of a future post, but Adam is a bit of a mystery. The grave marker gives only one date for him, 1907, which is probably his death date. However, there are no good matches in broad searches of indexed historical records for an Adam Bogacki who died in Buffalo in 1907. Rather, I suspect that the grave marker may be in error, and the error may stem from conflating two different children of Antoni Bogacki and his third wife, Maria Tądrowska.
A search in the PGSNYS databases for surname “Bogack,” father’s name “Ant” and mother’s name “Mar” produces the two death records shown in Figure 8, from Transfiguration parish.
Figure 8: Death records from Transfiguration parish for Adam and Venceslaus Bogacki. Click image to enlarge.
This search result reveals that Adam Bogacki was born to Antoni Bogacki and Maria Tądrowska on 2 July 1905, and he and died the next day. His death record is available here.[23] Similarly, Antoni and Maria lost another son, Venceslaus (Wacław in Polish) Bogacki, whose death record states that he was born 26 September 1907 and died one day later.[24] Cemetery records may help determine whether it’s Adam Bogacki who was buried in the family plot, and the grave marker incorrectly identifies his year of death (more likely), or whether it’s Wacław, and the grave marker incorrectly identifies his name. By the way, if you’re wondering where their baptismal records are, it may well be that Adam’s and Venceslaus’s baptisms were recorded at Transfiguration. However, baptismal records are only available for this parish up through 1903.
To sum it all up, then, Figure 9 depicts a partial family tree for the Bogacki family, focusing on those members who are buried in the family plot at St. Stanislaus Cemetery. Stay tuned for the story of Elżbieta Siekierecka: Was she a Bogacka?
Figure 9: Partial family tree for the Bogacki family of Buffalo, New York, focusing on those members who are buried in the family plot at St. Stanislaus Cemetery (Figures 1 and 2). Click image to enlarge.
Roman Catholic Church, Corpus Christi parish (Buffalo, Erie, New York), Marriages, Vol. II ( October 2, 1900 – November 3, 1909), p. 248, 1909, no. 101, Bogacki-Niwczyk; Polish Genealogical Society of New York State.
[17] Roman Catholic Church of St. Stanislaus, Bishop & Martyr (Buffalo, Erie, New York, USA), Baptisms, Vol. IV, (1895-1903), p. 310, 1899, no. 18, record for Marcyanna Bogacka, born 10 January 1899; digital image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS4N-643R-Z?cat=23415&i=1132&lang=en; : accessed 18 February 2025).
From Shepherds and Shoemakers 